Of Mall Fires, The Gaisano Clan, and the Third Generation Curse

When I saw on Facebook on January 5 that the Metro part of Ayala was on fire, my mind immediately brought me back to 1998 to 2001 when I was a student at the University of the Philippines Cebu. During long breaks between classes, lunch time, or after our Wednesday guidance session, my friends and I would cram ourselves into the Vitara or Civic of one of our friends and ride to Ayala. On days when our designated driver was not around, we would walk to Ayala and would always enter through the Metro. I must have gone through that part of the mall more than hundreds of times and to see it destroyed by fire was quite sad.

Metro Gaisano burning. (Photo credit to Mayor Tommy Osmeña's FB page)

One of my readers reminded me that though I have already written about the main line of the Gaisano's through an old article on Don Pedro Gotiaoco, I have not written about the Gaisano clan. I realized that as someone whose earliest memories of supermarkets were at their Gaisano South store in Leon Kilat and later in JS Gaisano in Ilustre in Davao City, it is high time that we explore the Gaisano family tree.

Other than warm memories of buying goya milk chocolate or Yan-Yan or Haw Flakes from their stores when I was young, I also remember several cases of fire destroying this and that store of the Gaisanos. 

One of my earliest memories was a fire eating up my favorite JS Gaisano in Davao in the 80s. I no longer remember when the new store was erected, but rebuild the family did.

In 1997 another fire hit the family, this time the White Gold Department store. I remember that this store was a favorite of my grandfather, and that one of my maternal aunts had her wedding reception in the White Gold House restaurant. Again, the family rebuilt and the store has now been relocated to a nearby place.

In December of 2011 the five-story Gaisano Capital South in Leon Kilat and Colon caught fire at around 12:40 a.m. Then in January of 2017 another fire hit one of their stores, this time the multi-million building Gaisano Capital  in Barangay Mintal, Tugbok District. In the same year, another fire also hit the Gaisano mall in Ormoc City, again starting before dawn.

Although there may be some who wish to find connections in these fires, my job is to discuss the genealogy of the Gaisanos, not the investigation into the fires that have devastated their stores over the years.

Family Curse?

The Gaisano dynasty started with a small, typical Filipina known as an active player in Cebu’s socio-economic activities during her time. She was a well-known philanthropist and was always supportive of the local government. As discussed in my previous article on the Go clan of Cebu, Doña Modesta Singson Gaisano was one of the children of Chinese immigrant Don Pedro Gotiaoco. 

One of the old stories about Don Pedro was that he left China because he had accidentally killed a relative. Some say that this accidental killing activated a curse that was later to haunt several lines of Don Pedro's descendants. Consider this: aside from various fires destroying various Gaisano department stores through the years, fires have also hit several Robinsons stores, prominent among these were the 2011 fire that hit Robinsons mall in midtown Cebu and in 2013 when another fire hit Robinsons Galleria located in Ortigas Center. This is an interesting connection because the founder of the Robinsons department stores, John Gokongwei, Sr., was a half-brother of Modesta S. Gaisano; both were the children of Don Pedro Gotiaoco.

The Third Generation Curse

Aside from the Gotiaoco curse, there is also another theory for all these fires. In a study conducted in Singapore, it was discovered that only 13 percent of family businesses in Singapore survive until the third generation; the same study has also been applied to Filipino family businesses which tended to have similar results as their Singaporean counterpart. These similarities in declining family businesses have led to the so-called three-generation curse, which states that the first generation creates the business, the second one maintains it, the third one fritters it away. 

Unfortunately for this so-called theory, the Gaisano fires happened before and after the third generation began to assume control of the business. For instance, the burning of White Gold and JS Gaisano in Davao happened when the sons of Modesta were still alive, thus it was still the second generation running the business. And the latest fires have happened during the watch of the third and some fourth generation members of the family. Besides, it is clear that the Third Generation curse is far from being applicable to the Gaisanos. The Gaisano family has expanded their supermarket empire into most major cities all over the Philippines. 

What started as just one supermarket has now grown into an empire. When Modesta S. Gaisano died 1985 her children took over her business and made it the empire that it is today.

The Gaisano Family

First, it is clear that the Gaisano name is a maternal name. Modesta Singson Gaisano married Jose Sy Leng Kee, Chinese from Long Hu Ya Kou, Jinjiang in Fujian. Their eleven children: five boys, David, Stephen, Henry, Victor, and John, and six girls, Pian Pian, Kam Kam, Eng Eng, Yan Yan, Ching Ching, and Teng Teng, all used Gaisano as a last name and Sy as a middle name. Although not a rule, many Chinese - Filipino families would use the existing more Filipino last name as a family name and the father's Chinese name as a middle one.

The family has maintained its Chinese identity by marrying into almost purely Chinese or Chinese-Filipino families. Even the fourth and fifth generations continue the practice of marrying within the Chinese community. However, here and there, some marry outside the community. For instance, Henry Sia Gaisano II, son of Edmund Gaisano, married Jhezarie Javier, former Bb. Pilipinas-International, while Valeri Gaisano, Henry II's sister, also married a non-Chinese, Glenn Sebastian.

Since the passing of Modesta S. Gaisano, the various chains of the Gaisano clan have evolved into the following: Gaisano Capital, owned by the Gaisano Capital Group that was started by Henry Sy Gaisano, Sr. and as of 2010 already has 15 branches all over the Visayas and Mindanao; Gaisano Country Malls, a chain of malls that was started by Stephen Gaisano, Jr., son of Stephen S. Gaisano, Sr.; Gaisano Malls that were started by David Sy Gaisano which also includes White Gold; Gaisano Grand Malls, founded by Benito S. Gaisano, son of Henry S. Gaisano, among others. Aside from malls and supermarkets, the family has also expanded into other businesses like banking.

And despite all the issues the family has had to deal with over the years, it cannot be denied that the Gaisanos have helped many throughout the years. For one, their hundreds of stores all over the country have given employment to many, and their generosity in giving scholarship funds to deserving students started 56 years ago continues to this very day. The Gaisano scholarship, which is one of the longest running scholarships in the Philippines, is a project of the Doña Modesta S. Gaisano Foundation established by the children of the Gaisano matriarch in honor of their mother. Every year, 30 outstanding graduates from the different schools and universities in Cebu are awarded P100,000 each as funding for their education.

Family curses, while not really logical, add some flavor to family histories. The Kennedys have their own family curse story which just adds more to the tragic events surrounding the deaths of its more charismatic members. Even the Gokongwei's, cousins of the Gaisanos, also have a strange family curse about a half-snake half human member of the family who lurks inside the walls of the Robinsons department stores and abducts female customers. No matter how much the family tries to dispel the rumors, these curses have a life of their own.

So, unlike the supposed victims of the Third Generation curse, it does appear that the family is going to go beyond the third generation; in fact, the fourth generation members have now started doing their fair share in running the business.

Top 10 Chinese Family Names in the Philippines

Ever since the Philippine President started declaring the Chinese Lunar New Year as a special non-working holiday (I’m unsure if it was President Arroyo or Aquino who started this. Knowing her penchant for creating holidays I guess it was PGMA), I’ve regarded the holiday with much more enthusiasm and respect. Not only because I get the day off during the Chinese New Year, but also because I share part of the heritage of the Chinese-Filipinos being a TAN descendant from my mother’s side of the family as well being a SINDIONG descendant on my father’s family. Though the holiday has no religious or spiritual significance to me, I would like to offer my own well wishes to the rest of the Filipino-Chinese community on this day and what better way to give to wish them well than to give out the latest list of top 10 Chinese surnames in the Philippines.

As a caveat, I would like to point out this early that these rankings are based on the top 50 surnames compilation of family names in each city and municipality. Thus, the count of the people carrying these particular top 10 surnames are based only on those found in top 50, not overall in the Philippines.

In China today the following surnames are the ten most populous: Lǐ, Wáng, Zhāng, Liú, Chén, Yáng, Zhào, Huáng, Zhōu, and Wú.  These surnames appear in variations in the Philippines as Lee, Dy, and Sy; Wong and Ong; Chong, Teo, and Tiu; Lao; Chan and Tan; Leung; Chiu and Chu; Wong and Ko; Chao; and Wu and Go, respectively. Though they have their counterparts in the Philippines these variants are not similar in ranking though most of them are still part of the top 10 most populous Chinese family names in the country. These are:

1. TAN (陈). The surname Tan appears as the most populous Chinese surname in the Philippines and ranks as the 55^th most populous among all family names in the country. It is derived from the name of an ancient region in China (in the province of Henan). As part of the sentence it is first a verb and means to arrange, exhibit, narrate, tell, to state, to display, or to explain. It can also function as an adjective and means aged/old, stale, and vintage. As proof of its prevalence as a surname it appears as one of the top 50 surnames in 123 cities and municipalities and can be found in all the regions in the Philippines especially in the National Capital Region and Eastern Visayas. There are an estimated 86,513 people carrying the surname Tan in Metro Manila with a high concentration in Santa Cruz, Quezon City, and Tondo. In these three areas alone there are more than 20,000 Tans.

                                                                                                                    

2. LIM (林). The number 2 Chinese surname and number 99 among all surnames in the Philippines. It means “woods” or “forest”. It appears as part of the top 50 in 74 cities and municipalities and there are 58,450 carrying the surname. Like Tan it is also prevalent in Santa Cruz, Quezon City, and Tondo.

3. UY (黄). A variant of the surname Huang, Uy ranks 218^th among all Filipino family names. It means “yellow” though it is also associated with the metal “gold” or the chemical “sulfur”. It appears in 32 towns and cities in the Philippines and is most populous in Cebu City, Tondo, Davao City, Manila, Iloilo City, and Bacolod City, totaling 10,955 people carrying the last name. All in all, among those where it appears as one of the top 50, there are 18,746 people bearing the name Uy.

4. CHUA (蔡). Derived from the last name Cài, Chua appears as the 303^rd most common family name in the Philippines. The surname is derived from the name of a former kingdom in China. It appears as part of the top 50 in 24 cities and municipalities and there are 23,337 people carrying the surname in these 24 towns and cities. It is most populous in Metro Manila and in Iloilo, particularly in the cities and municipalities of Santa Cruz, Tondo, Manila, Sampaloc, Kalookan City, Bacolod City, Ermita, and Iloilo City, where 19,218 Chuas reside.

5. ONG (汪). Derived from the last name Wāng, which means “go”; it appears as part of the top 50 last names in 15 cities and municipalities and there are 11,825 carrying the surname in these 24 towns and cities. It appears most numerous in Santa Cruz, Tondo, Manila, and Iloilo City, still in Metro Manila and Iloilo similar to Chua. In these 4 areas alone 9,710 or 82% of Ongs reside.

6. GO (吴). Derived from the surname Wú, which was a former state in China, it appears as part of the top 50 family names in 19 cities and municipalities in the country and there are 11,620 people carrying the surname in these 19 areas. A bit differently from the previous surnames, Go is more common in Visayan cities particularly in Cebu City, Cagayan de Oro City, and Tacloban City, though it also appears in Tondo and Manila. In these 5 alone there are 9,877 people bearing the last name Go.

7. YAP (葉). Derived from the last name Yè, it appears as one of the top 50 surnames in 16 cities and municipalities and there are 8,460 carrying the surname.  It means “leaf”. Numeorus Yaps can be found in Cebu City, Davao City, Iloilo City, and Bacolod City.

8. YU (余 / 于). The Filipino Yu is the same as the Chinese Yu, though there are two Yu Chinese versions.  The first Yu means "in", "on", "at";and "go to", while the second one means "extra" or "surplus". It appears as part of the top 50 surnames in 15 cities and municipalities and there are 6,610 people in these 15 areas carrying the surname. It appears the most in Cebu City, Tondo, and Tacloban City.

9. ANG (汪). Derived from the surname Wāng whcih means "king". It appears as part of the top 50 in 10 cities and municipalities and there are 4,553 carrying the surname in these 10 cities and municipalities. It is most numerous in Tondo in Metro Manila and In Davao City.

10. LEE (李). A variant of the surname Lǐ, it means "plum". Although it is the most numerous Chinese surname in the world it is only the 10th most populous last name in the Philippines and appears as part of the top 50 in only 11 cities and municipalities. In these 11 places there are only 2,099 people carrying the surname. It is most populous in Baguio City, San Juan in Metro Manila, and in Jolo, Sulu.

Kung Hei Fat Choy!!!!

Tracing Rizal's Ancestry through Austin Craig's Book

For the very lucky few, the journey to one's genealogical past may be discovered with just one book.

Books have been produced throughout the centuries to chronicle the lives of families famous, infamous, or even the ordinary. Some bygone member or members of families were smart enough to research and preserve their genealogies for a variety of reasons. Whatever their purpose, those who descend from these families are lucky because the bulk of the research has already been done for them.

In the Philippines, however, this isn't as common. For one thing the subject of genealogy is not as popular among the population and the concept of writing a book about a family is not also a common practice. But again, for those lucky enough to have relatives who have done the research then searching secondhand bookshops, public libraries, and online bookstores and other sources is worth it.

Today, in celebration of Jose Rizal's birth, I decided to show how his genealogy was discussed thoroughly by just one book.  Although Rizal's family tree is a fascination of many researchers and history buffs, and books like Lolo José: An Intimate and Illustrated Portrait of José Rizal (written by Asuncion Lopez Bantug, a grandniece of Jose Rizal), Rizal without the Overcoat (by Ambeth Ocampo), and José Rizal: Life, Works, and Writings (by Gregorio Zaide) have extensive discussions about Rizal's family history, no one has written a more comprehensive genealogy of the National Hero than Austin Craig's Lineage, Life and Labors of Jose Rizal, Philippine Patriot: A Study of the Growth of Free Ideas in the Trans Pacific American Territory.

This New Yorker is considered one of the very first biographers of Rizal. He arrived in the Philippines  on July 25, 1904. He taught under the Bureau of Education, and worked in various places: Lubang Island; Calapan, Mindoro; and finally in Manila where he taught in Philippine School of Arts and Trades, the Philippine Normal School, Manila High School, the University of the Philippines, and the University of Manila. He held the Rizal professorial chair at the University of the Philippines in from 1912 to 1922 and was considered one of the experts on Rizal. 

His book begins with Rizal's Chinese ancestor, Domingo Lam-co, whom he described in the book as a sort of leader among the various Chinese migrants who left their country for a better life in the colony. He was said to have had a certain prestige among his own people (from Chinchew) as shown by his leadership of those who later settled with him in Biñan, Laguna, as well as the fact that he acted as godfather, which suggests that he was above the ordinary standing. Craig wrote that this prestige was because of his marriage to the daughter of an educated Chinese, an alliance that was not likely to have been made unless he was a person of some education, and education is the Chinese test of social degree. Lam-co was baptized in the Parian church of San Gabriel on a Sunday in June of 1697, hence his name. His age was given in the record as thirty-five years, and the names of his parents were given as Siang-co and Zun-nio. 

(Although some researches have given Lam-co's real name as Cue Yi-lam and have claimed that he belonged to the Cua clan of south China, being one of the descendants [a 19th generation descendant, in fact] of Shu Du, the 5th son of Zhou Wu Wang, the political genius who started the Chou dynasty, there is nomention of these facts in Craig's book.)

Domingo Lam-co married Inez de la Rosa whose father was Agustin Chinco, also of Chinchew, a rice merchant, who had been baptized five years earlier than Lam-co. His baptismal record suggests that he was an educated man. Agustin Chinco's parents were Chin-co and Zun-nio and he married Jacinta Rafaela, a Chinese mestiza of the Parian, who was the daughter of a Christian Chinese and a Chinese mestiza. Aside from Inez, Agustin Chinco's other children were Magdalena Vergara, Josepha, Cristoval de la Trinidad, Juan Batista, and Francisco Hong-Sun.

Domingo and Inez's only surviving child was named Francisco, and this son was the first to use the last name Mercado. He was already a grown man when his mother died. Domingo followed a few years later.

Francisco Mercado lived in the hacienda of St. John the Baptist at Calamba where there was a great dam and an extensive irrigation system which caused the land to rival in fertility the rich soil of Biñan. He only married on May 26, 1771, rather later in life than was customary in Biñan, though he was by no means as old as his father, Domingo, was when he married. His bride, Bernarda Monicha, was a Chinese mestiza of the neighboring hacienda of San Pedro Tunasan, who had been early orphaned and from childhood had lived in Biñan. They had two sons, Juan and Clemente. A well to do man, his name appears so often as godfather in the registers of baptisms and weddings that he must have been a good-natured, liberal and popular man. He died in 1801.

Francisco Mercado’s eldest son, Juan, built a fine house in the center of Biñan, where its pretentious stone foundations yet stand to attest how the home deserved the pride which the family took in it. At twenty-two Juan married a girl of Tubigan, who was two years his elder, Cirila Alejandra, daughter of Domingo Lam-co’s Chinese godson, Siong-co.

Juan later changed the status of his family in the tribute list from mestizo sangleyes (Mestizo Chinese) to indios. As Craig put it, Juan must have felt that four generations after Domingo Lam-co qualified them already as indio and not Chinese anymore. Juan's children were Gavino, Potenciana (who never married), Leoncio, Fausto, Barcelisa (who became the wife of Hermenegildo Austria), Gabriel, Julian, Gregorio Fernando, Casimiro, Francisco, Petrona (who married Gregorio Neri), Tomasa (later Mrs. F. de Guzman), and Cornelia, the belle of the family, who later lived in Batangas. Francisco was Rizal's father.

A year after his sister Potenciana’s death, Francisco Mercado married Teodora Alonzo, a native of Manila, who for several years had been residing with her mother at Kalamba. Though Craig found the paternal line easy to trace, he felt that Teodora Alonzo's was unfortunately not so easily traced.

Her father, Lorenzo Alberto Alonzo (born 1790, died 1854), was said to have been “very Chinese” in appearance. He had a brother who was a priest, and a sister, Isabel, who was quite wealthy; he himself was also well to do. Their mother, Maria Florentina (born 1771, died 1817), was, on her mother’s side, of the famous Florentina family of Chinese mestizos originating in Baliwag, Bulacan, and her father was Captain Mariano Alejandro of Biñan.

Lorenzo Alberto was municipal captain of Biñan in 1824, as had been his father, Captain Cipriano Alonzo (died 1805), in 1797. The grandfather, Captain Gregorio Alonzo (died 1794), was a native of Quiotan barrio, and twice, in 1763 and again in 1768, at the head of the mestizos’ organization of the Santa Cruz district in Manila.

Lorenzo met Brigida de Quintos while he was a student in Manila, and that she, being unusually well educated for a girl of those days, helped him with his mathematics. Their acquaintance apparently arose through relationship, both being connected with the Reyes family, and soon they were married. They had five children: Narcisa (who married Santiago Muger), Teodora (Mrs. Francisco Rizal Mercado), Gregorio, Manuel and José. All were born in Manila, but lived in Kalamba, and they used the name Alonzo until in 1850 when, with their mother, they adopted the name Realonda in accordance with the Claveria decree. This latter name has been said to be an allusion to royal blood in the family, but other indications suggest that it might have been a careless mistake made in writing by Rosa Realonda, whose name sometimes appears written as Redonda. This is also similar to the common belief that the Rizals changed their last name Mercado to Rizal as they were farmers, that the surname Rizal came from the Spanish ricial, which means green fields. However, ricial does not seem to appear in the Catalogo Alfabetico de Apellidos but there is Risal, which is very likely the original surname but was made to look better -- hence Rizal.

Brigida de Quintos’s death record, in Kalamba (1856), speaks of her as the daughter of Manuel de Quintos and Regina Ochoa. The most obscure part of Rizal’s family tree is the Ochoa branch, the family of the maternal grandmother, for all the archives,—church, land and court,—disappeared. So the only sources for this line's history are the ones told by elderly people.

The first of the family is said to have been Policarpio Ochoa, an employee of the Spanish customs house whose son was Estanislao Manuel Ochoa, with the blood of old Castile mingling with Chinese and Tagalog in his veins. He was part owner of the Hacienda of San Francisco de Malabon and one story says that somewhere in this family was a Mariquita Ochoa, of such beauty that she was known in Cavite, where was her home, as the Sampaguita of the Parian.

There was supposedly a Spanish nobleman in Cavite in her time who was deported for political reasons and it was said that this particular noble was the Marquis de Canete.

To make a long story short, this nobleman fell in love with Mariquita but because of his political color he was not allowed to marry Mariquita. Thus, she became a common-law wife. One of their children, José, had a tobacco factory and a slipper factory in Meisic, Manila, and was the especial protector of his younger sister, Regina, who became the wife of attorney Manuel de Quintos. A sister of Regina was Diega de Castro, who with another sister, Luseria, sold chorizos and tiratira, the first at a store and the second in their own home, but both in Cavite, according to the variations of one narrative.

Manuel de Quintos was an attorney of Manila, graduated from Santo Tomás University, whose family were Chinese mestizos of Pangasinan. The lawyer’s father, of the same name, had been municipal captain of Lingayan, and an uncle was leader of the Chinese mestizos in a protest they had made against the arbitrariness of their provincial governor.

All the branches of Teodora Alonzo’s family were much richer than the relatives of her husband; there were numerous lawyers and priests among them—the old-time proof of social standing—and they were influential in the country.

Some historians, and this includes Austin Craig, have hinted that Jose Rizal was a Lakadula descendant through Teodora Alonzo, but as there has not been archival documentation for this then it remains nothing but a legend.

The book goes on to chronicle Rizal's life and death, but suffice it to say that this book is indeed the first of its kind to explore comprehensively Rizal's genealogy. Until today, it remains perhaps the most authoritative of the National Hero's family tree.

Imagine how easy our genealogical quest would have been if we all had someone like Austin Craig to have researched our family trees for us.

To view Jose Rizal's family tree, click here.

Cebuano Families: The Herreras

Uy Herrera descendants: Bohol Vice-Governor Julius Ceasar F. Herrera
and former Senator Ernesto "Boy" F. Herrera.

Since it is Labor Day in the Philippines I could not think of anything better to write than the ancestry of former Senator Ernesto F. Herrera, a champion of labor law.

The surname Herrera is a feminine version of the Spanish male noun herrero, which means “blacksmith”.

The Herrera family of Bohol and Cebu are relatively new comers to the Philippines, having arrived in the islands in the late nineteenth century.  However, after only less than two centuries’ stay in the Philippines, they have already established themselves to be a respectable and hard-working family.  The family is Chinese-Filipino in origin, and the first Herrera in Cebu was a pure Chineseman.  Records show that the Herreras arrived from the town of Leonque in the Fujian Province of China in the 1870’s.  

The leader of this family was the famed Uy Mayan, or Uy Maguan, who is now known as the first Chinese consul in Cebu City.  After being baptized into the Catholic faith, he took the additional surname HERRERA in honor of his baptismal sponsor, who was an alcalde-mayor of Surigao.  Thus, after becoming Christianized he became Lucio Uy Herrera.  His brother, Julian, and cousin, Uy Tua, also took the surname Uy Herrera, which was later simplified into Herrera during the American period. Despite this he was invariably listed in records as Lucio Uy, Lucio Herrera, Lucio Herrera Uy Mayan, and Lucio Herrera Uy Singchiong.

Don Lucio Uy Herrera distinguished himself as one of the prominent Chinese in Cebu City.  He was one of the three (the other two being Don Julian Paulin and Don Nicasio Chiong-Veloso) Chinese Dons who parlayed their local commercial success into social and political prestige within Filipino society.  He and his family were big property owners and had haciendas in Cebu City and in the town of Medellin, Cebu. In the 1891 Guia official of importers and exporters he was listed as having 45 employees, quite a large number at that time. After Jose Rizal was executed the Katipuneros in Cebu City intensified their preparations for the planned revolution. The revolutionaries' headquarters was at the house of Don Lucio Uy Herrera himself. 

One of Don Lucio Uy Herrera's great-grandsons, Constantino H. Navarro, served as a mayor of Surigao City. Meanwhile, Don Lucio Uy Herrera’s cousin, Uy Tua, has produced many prominent and upstanding descendants, including his grandsons, Ernesto “Boy” Herrera and Julius Caesar Herrera, respectively a former Philippine Senator and present Bohol Vice-Governor, and a great-grandson, Ernesto Herrera II, the current Mayor Calape, Bohol.

A Partial Uy Herrera Family Tree

? Uy. 

Spouse:  [--?--]

├─? Uy 

│┐Spouse:  [--?--]

│┐├─Lucio Uy Herrera 

│┐│┐Spouse:  Carlota Jabonero

│┐│┐└─Jose Uy Herrera 

│┐│┐┐┐Wife:  Patrocinio Reynes Borromeo

│┐│┐┐┐├─Caridad Borromeo Herrera 

│┐│┐┐┐├─Rodolfo Borromeo Herrera 

│┐│┐┐┐├─Lisinio Borromeo Herrera 

│┐│┐┐┐├─Eterio Borromeo Herrera 

│┐│┐┐┐├─Jesus Borromeo Herrera 

│┐│┐┐┐├─Milagros Borromeo Herrera 

│┐│┐┐┐└─Helene Borromeo Herrera 

│┐│┐┐┐┐┐Husband:  Constantino C. Navarro, Sr.

│┐│┐┐┐┐┐└─Constantino Navarro 

│┐│┐┐┐┐┐┐┐Wife:  Guia Antionette Legaspi

│┐└─Julian Uy Herrera 

└─?? Uy 

┐┐Spouse:  [--?--]

┐┐└─Uy Tua Herrera 

┐┐┐┐Wife:  [--?--]

┐┐┐┐└─Sofio Herrera 

┐┐┐┐┐┐Spouse:  Narcisa Falar

┐┐┐┐┐┐├─Ernesto Herrera 

┐┐┐┐┐┐│┐Wife:  Nena Cuico

┐┐┐┐┐┐│┐└─Ernesto Herrera, Jr. 

┐┐┐┐┐┐├─Julius Ceasar Herrera 

┐┐┐┐┐┐│┐Wife:  Florenda Leyson

┐┐┐┐┐┐└─Emma Herrera 

┐┐┐┐┐┐┐┐Husband:  Alvin Baldado

_______________________________
Sources:
1. Uy Herrera blog (http://bright4us.blog.com/?p=9)
2. Gavin Sanson Bagares notes on the Uy Herreras
3. Borromeo family tree
4. Edgar Wickberg. The Chinese in Philippine Life, 1850-1898.
5. Rafael A. Bautista. The Bloody Palm Sunday of April 3, 1898. (accessed via the UMICH collection).
6. Cubillo-Gaudioso family tree

Surname Spotlight: GO

One of the most common Filipino surnames is GO. The Filipino-Chinese family name GO is a variant of an old Chinese last name, WU, which also comes in the forms of Gao, the Cantonese Ngo, Ngor, or Gor, Ng, Ang, Eng, and Ing. The family name is traced to the town of Wu Jin of the Jiang Su Province in China and is considered by most experts of Chinese genealogy as the top 10 most common Chinese last name. The word WU means “men of brotherly love”, "god-like" or "the highest."

According to official records, the surname Wu is from any of the following sources: first, that they are descendents of Wu Quan, who was an official of Zhuan Xu (2,513 – 2435 B.C.); second, that they are descendents of Yu Shun (2,255 – 2,205 B.C.); third, that they are descendents of the famous archer of Xia Shao Kang (2,079-2,057 B.C.); and fourth, that they are descendents of the kings of the Wu Kingdom established by Tai Bo and Zhong Yong. Most researchers agree that the last source is the most credible and plausible origin of the family.

In one of the earlier articles here, The Pedro Gotiaoco Family, many of the descendants of the Wu or Go clan in the Philippines has taken on different variations of the name: Gotiaoco, Gotianun, Gotianuy, & Gokongwei.